A Girl Worth Fighting For
by mufire
Summary: Neal is stuck in the Enchanted Forest with no way back to his son, and the woman he claims to love. Mulan is charged with the task of keeping him alive in the fairy tale ghost town, while he comes to terms with the fact that he has abandoned Henry like his father abandoned him.
1. What Are You Waiting For?

Neal was dimly aware of the waves lapping at his feet, of his face pressed against gritty sand. He couldn't open his eyes, and a dull pain was throbbing through his shoulder and down his whole body. He was freezing cold. Everything quickly faded to black, and nothing was left but the thought that he had failed his son.

* * *

When he came to again, he could hear voices, and a warmth at his side. His eyes slowly opened and tried to make shapes out. It took him a moment due to the darkness. It must be nighttime. Still, his eyes adjusted, aided by the flickering of the fire. He tried to speak, but it came out as a small moan. The voices immediately stopped and he felt a hand pressing against his forehead.

"Is he awake?" a feminine voice asked, and he felt someone else near him.

"I don't think so," another voice whispered; this one sounded like a male.

_Emma._

The thought almost roused him, but he couldn't quite get his eyes opened before blackness overtook him again.

* * *

The next time he woke, it was daylight, and he could feel himself laying on something that seemed to be a bed. He let out a deep groan, and his muscles protested the movement. After he realized he was not alone, things quickly began to happen. Introductions were made, along with plans that he was highly speculative towards. He had no choice but to trust him- they had saved his life, after all, and seemed eager to help. But he'd never heard of a dream world.

Aurora, he thought that was her name. Sleeping Beauty, who would have thought? And of course there was her prince alongside her. But who in their right mind would add Mulan, of all people, into the midst? He had been so focused on being back in the Enchanted Forest, and of Emma, that he hadn't really let his mind wander to the storybook characters standing in front of him, but he finally gave himself a moment to survey the mismatched trio.

Philip stood proudly to the side, looking every inch the knight in shining armor, with his chest heaved outwards and his hand resting on the hilt of the sword. He gave Neal a kind smile. Okay, so he seemed like a pretty decent guy. Though he suspected more questions about firearms would be heading his way soon, and he wasn't sure how to explain a .45 caliber to him.

Aurora was gracefully climbing up onto the bed, where she planned to try and contact Emma for Neal through the dream world that he didn't want to know anymore about than he had to- it didn't sound like a particularly pleasant place. Somehow she kept her tiara nestled perfectly on her head the whole time, and Neal thought no one would have any trouble recognizing that she was a princess, with the way she held herself.

And then there was Mulan. She didn't have much expression on her face, at least not since ten minutes that Neal had met her. She wanted to help, that much was evident, along with the fact that there seemed to be some Emma admiring going on. Neal would like to know what for. He was aware Emma had been in the Enchanted Forest for a period of time, but she hadn't spoken much of it. Most of the facts he had gathered were from Henry.

_Henry._

God, he hoped the kid was alright. He had to get back there, somehow. If Tamara ended up hurting his family, there would be hell to pay.

He took a deep breath, and caught Mulan's eyes. She gave him a reassuring glance while Aurora began to sleep, drawing deep breaths. Neal's hands clenched into fists.

This had to work.

* * *

But it didn't.

The next resort was his father's castle. The four of them decided it would be safer to travel together. Once Philip tucked their provisions away, Mulan led them out into the blistering sun. Neal's stomach growled with hunger and his shoulder burned, reminding him of Tamara's betrayal with every step. Needless to say, he was quickly in a bad mood, and the rest of the group soon knew it, judging by his clipped answers to questions and the expression on his face. Soon they were walking into a forest again, and were sheltered from the sunlight by the thick trees.

His stomach growled again, and Mulan threw him a piece of dry bread that she dug from a pouch. Neal caught it, but almost missed.

"Thanks," he sai grouchily. The bread wasn't the best, but he wasn't in the position to complain. Mulan still caught his unsatisfied look.

"If you walk a bit faster, we might get there sooner. I'm sure there's food more suited to your need in the Dark One's palace," she said, her voice blank.

"I've been shot. I'm going as fast as I can," Neal grumbled with his mouth full. Mulan looked over at him.

"And we're helping as much as we can. I'm doing this for Emma," she added, apparently not pleased with his mood, but Neal didn't care what she thought of him at the moment.

"I need to get back to my wife and son," Neal said angrily. He wasn't sure what made him say 'wife'. Maybe his dreams had been getting away with him. Or perhaps it was to see the spark of shock in Mulan's eyes.

"Wife?" Mulan questioned. She returned her sword to its sheath and gave him a quizzical look. Neal hesitated.

"Well. Not exactly," he admitted guiltily. Mulan fixed him with a level stare.

"The mother of your child, then?"she asked. Aurora and Philip stood awkwardly to the side.

"Yeah," Neal answered lamely.

"All the more reason for us to get a move on," Mulan said briskly. While she began moving through the thick woods, the others followed along. She looked back at Neal, who had stopped to take a breath.

"What are you waiting for?" she said expectantly. He sighed, rolled his eyes, and followed her.

They reached the castle that afternoon. Neal was grateful to see the turrets standing against the blue sky; Philip patted him on the back.

"Soon you will see your loved ones again," he assured him. Neal was reminded of how infuriatingly optismistic some inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest could be. But he supposed that was what happened when you lived in a fairy tale world, where spells could be broken with true love's kiss. A small voice inside his head asked if Emma was his true love. He pushed it aside. Of course she was.

He gazed at the castle doors with speculation. Mulan started forwards.

"Stay behind me," she said, drawing her sword again.

"Are you always this paranoid?" Neal asked.

"Only when I'm in a land ravaged by ogres," she shot back, giving him a less-than-impressed stare. He decided it was best to remain silent at that point.

He jumped when Mulan kicked the doors in.

"You could have just, you know, opened them normally," he said in a snide voice. He knew he shouldn't be so rude, but his empty stomach had a way of speaking for him.

"No handles," Mulan replied, and he looked down. She was right.

"It looks abandoned," Aurora said as they stepped inside. Her eyes wandered over the high walls, and the floors that were littered with left behind trinkets and wreckage. Philip now had his sword unsheathed as well. Neal stepped forward, walking further into the castle, past the entrance hall and into the main room. He let out a sigh of frustration. How was he supposed to find anything to help him when the place had been ransacked? But surely his father had hidden items somewhere. If he knew one thing about Rumplestiltskin, it was that he always had a safety net.

He let out a yell of surprise when something whizzed by his face and thudded into the wall, inches from his ear. He became painfully aware that he wasn't armed.

"Not entirely," came an accented voice near the window. Neal watched as someone jumped down, and felt Mulan tense beside him. "State your purpose," the stranger demanded. Neal decided he didn't like the tone. The place was_ his_ inheritance, after all.

"We're looking for something," Mulan said vaguely.

"You're trespassing."

"Look, look, we just need to look around, then you can have the place all to yourself," Neal put in. Though it was his inheritance, it was entirely too magical. He wasn't that fond of it, and to be honest, it gave him chills.

"And what right do you have to scavenge my refuge?" asked the man. Neal surveyed him closer. He seemed covered in furs and leather, all browns and greens, and his bow had been reloaded, the arrow aimed towards Mulan. Neal didn't blame his choice of target; the woman looked pretty threatening.

"My father. This was his home."

"The Dark One?" the other man asked, and lowered his bow just slightly.

"Yes," Neal winced. It wasn't something he was proud to admit.

"Well then. I'm Robin. Robin Hood. Go ahead and look down," the man said and lowered his bow completely. His hand gestured around the room, which was now free for their exploration. Neal's eyebrows shot up.

"You've gotta be kidding me," he sighed, but immediately began searching the room. "It would be cleverly hidden," he told the others, "something you wouldn't expect to be hiding something or to be magical."

And thus began their search. _Emma and Henry. Emma and Henry_, Neal kept thinking as he dug through the buildup of twenty eight years worth of abandonment, with Mulan by his side.


	2. For the Love of Your Father

It had been days since they arrived at Rumplestiltskin's castle, but Neal was refusing to give up searching for something to get him back to Henry and Emma. Mulan thought he almost seemed too eager - not that she suspected he was wishing any harm towards Emma and her son - but Mulan knew the desperate desire to prove one's self when she saw it. She'd been there before.

But when she told him to slow down, it backfired.

"I have to get back to my family! The only reason I let go of Emma's hand when that portal open was so Henry would have at least one parent left. And if she's in danger…."he shook his head angrily. All around them shelves had been strung out, cabinets ruined, china closets torn open and broken. A chilly breeze blew in through the broken glass of the large windows, making the ragged curtains threaten to come loose. Neal stood hunched over the main table, in deep thought. Mulan watched him from the wall she leaned against, with her arms folded over her chest.

"It doesn't look like we'll be accomplishing anything here. Surely there are other routes," she suggested.

"No, my father had to have left something. He always had something, a loophole, a solution for everything…"his voice wandered off.

"Magic," Mulan said bluntly. She didn't miss him wincing. She wondered what in his past had made him so wary of magic. This land had been infested with magic, and he came from here, he should be used to it. Unless it had terrorized him. Unless it had something to do with his father that he seemed to think lowly of.

He took his jacket off and tossed it to the side.

"If I have to use magic, I will, just-" he let out a growl of frustration and slammed his fist down on the table. "I knew he hid _something_ somewhere, I just can't find it! All this magic…"

"Magic always comes with a price," she said in a blank tone.

"I wanted away from all this crap, that's why I left in the first place. I _hate_ magic!" Neal yelled, and Mulan could see the childhood fear in his eyes. She sighed, unfazed by his temper tantrum, and she stepped forward, towards him.

"My sword deflects magic," she said simply, gesturing towards the ornate blade sheathed at her waist. She stood a few feet away from him now. Neal turned around and looked down at it, then to her. He gaped for a moment. Not many swords had the ability to stand up against magic. Mulan only knew of one other, and it seemed Neal was aware of their rarity as well.

"Wait, let me get this straight, you're telling me that your sword is enchanted?" he asked, as if it were too good to be true.

"I prefer the term '_special_'," Mulan gave him the slightest of smiles, "But yes, I can protect you from all magic."

Neal seemed taken aback by the prospect of her protecting him, but as Mulan looked back at him, she could see the relief on his face as well. She had been getting a good read on Neal over the past five days since she met him.

"You father chose magic over you." It was more of a guess, but she phrased it as a fact.

"He abandoned me for power," Neal said, hunched over the table with his shoulders slumping. "I can't do to Henry what he did to me. I missed enough of his life."

"Are there any tricks your father had, that you remember?" Mulan asked, surveying the room once more. "Something small, even. He might have left it as a clue for you."

"Nothing I can think of right now, just-" his voice cut off. Mulan's gaze followed his, to where a wooden stick was propped up in the corner. She swore she hadn't seen it there before. Someone must have moved it.

Neal slowly walked towards the staff and reached out hesitantly to touch it. He made a sound at the contact, then gripped it firmly in both hands, examining the runes carved into it.

"This was his," he said, his voice small. Without warning, he twirled the staff above his head. A high pitched, resonating sound reached their ears, and they turned in the direction of it to see blue glowing on the opposite wall, then a red cabinet was revealed.

"A cloaking spell," Mulan said, stepping towards the cabinet, but Neal reached it first and opened it. Old trinkets and relics were lined along the shelves, but Neal picked up a piece of old parchment.

"It's a map," he said, and Mulan stepped forward. The paper was blank.

"There's nothing on it," she said.

"Sure there is, there's-" he began pointing then stopped. "Oh. It's enchanted. Only I can see it."

"Blood magic," Mulan frowned. "What does it say?"

"It looks like he hid all his rarest valuables elsewhere….seems to be to the north, I'm not sure. The places have changed since I was last here…it's another castle, though."

A castle to the north? Then it clicked. She knew the two of them had been working with and against each other, and what was a better hiding place than right under your enemy's nose?

"The Evil Queen," said Mulan.

"Regina. What about her?" Neal asked, turning to look at her again.

"Her castle is in the north. Your father and her had a rivalry of sorts."

"I…." Neal's eyes went wide, and he grinned, walking over and putting his hands on his shoulders. Mulan blinked, startled by the contact. "Yes. Perfect. That's the place! It's just like him, to hide things in the most unlikely places. We'll go tomorrow!"

"Go where?" a voice echoed across the room. Mulan looked up to see Robin standing with his bow slung over his back, looking as poised as always. She was surprised she hadn't heard him come in - the man had excellent stealth.

"Another castle. I may find something there," Neal said, his face becoming more closed as he took his hands from Mulan's shoulders and turned to face Robin.

"So you're done scrounging around here?" Robin asked, a slight smirk on his face.

"Yeah, if that's what you want to call it," Neal said defensively. The excitement had faded from him.

"May I come along? It's been a good while since I had a proper adventure."

Neal studied the man for a long moment, and Mulan looked between the two of them, amused.

"Sure," Neal mumbled, then turned away, walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. Mulan watched him go with no expression, then her eyes darted over to Robin, who had propped one of his feet up on a wooden chair while still standing.

"I noticed you have a bow," he said. He nodded towards the bow and quiver full of arrows Mulan had left on the table. She gazed at him, trying to figure out whether his tone was condescending or he was just arrogant. She leaned towards the latter.

"Yes," she said blankly as she tried to get a better read on him. She didn't trust him. Not yet. She didn't know his true motives.

"Are you good aim?" he asked. He took an arrow from his own quiver and began playing with it.

"Good enough," she replied. Robin smiled.

"Care to get better?" he asked.

"I have my sword as backup. But thanks for the offer," she said, before following Neal's actions and leaving the room.

* * *

"We're leaving tomorrow, then," Aurora said as they sat around a table, eating dinner. Robin had brought in some conies and Aurora had cooked them up for everyone. Mulan had offered to help, but was declined. Aurora seemed to want to prove she could do things herself, so Mulan had gone and scouted the perimeter. It hadn't been necessary, but she became antsy without something to do.

"Yes," Neal nodded, then hesitated. "You don't all have to come, you know."

"We've no real kingdom to rule at the moment, not without people. Traveling does us good. We can find other survivors of the curse. It's the only way to get back to any semblance of what our life was like before," Philip spoke up before taking a large bite of meat.

"How long of a journey will it be?" Robin asked.

"A few days worth. You don't happen to have any horses hiding away here, do you?" Philip smiled, a teasing tone in his voice.

"I'm afraid not. The curse swept those away as well, it would seem," Robin shrugged.

"If Cora hadn't killed all those people...we could have starting rebuilding by now," Aurora sighed and frowned at her plate.

"There has to be others somewhere," said Mulan. She wasn't giving up on the prospect of her own family still being here, and alive.

"Maybe. We'll see," said Philip.

The rest of the dinner was ate in silence.

* * *

After dinner, Mulan found herself alone in the library she had found upstairs. Most of the books were torn and ruined, and some had been stolen (judging by rows of empty shelves), but many books had survived their long term abandonment with no scars to show besides a thick layer of dust.

She had never minded reading, she, in fact, enjoyed it when she was younger and could dream of far-off adventures. But then, once those adventures made their way into her real-life, she no longer had time to sit down and enjoy a long reading. Since Belle had proved to her books could actually be very useful, she'd made an attempt to start reading more, to collect knowledge in case she needed it.

"Good book?"

Neal had peeked inside. His hair was tousled and his eyes looked tired. He had put his jacket back on, as it was beginning to get chillier. A lantern was held in front of him - the sun was starting to set and inside it was getting darker. Mulan put the book to the side that she'd been trying to decipher through age and water damage.

"Slightly unreadable," she replied and stood up.

"Aurora and Philip were wondering where you were," he said, and let out a small cough, "I told them I'd go see where you ran off to. Aurora wanted to know if you'd like some tea."

His eyes strayed from her to the ceiling. She watched Neal gazing around at the room and remained silent - Aurora's tea could wait. He looked nostalgic. He was a man trying to get back to his family, and the search was a familiar one for Mulan.

"He got the castle after I left. It's very...him. The Dark One. That part of him," Neal clarified. "We were peasants before all this. I would have gone back to that rather than- " He cut himself off and shook his head.

"You would have traded all the riches, power, and magic for the love of your father," Mulan concluded for him. His head jerked in her direction.

"Something like that," he muttered.

"And now you would trade your aversion to using magic for reuniting with your family."

"How do you do that?" Neal asked.

"Do what?" she frowned.

"Deliver lines like that so….frankly. And, well, read me so well," he said. His forehead creased, and Mulan didn't know whether it was from confusion or alarm.

"You're not that hard to read, once I put the clues together, it was easy. And I simply tell the truth," she shrugged as she put the old book back on its shelf carefully.

"So I don't have to worry about deception from you," Neal said, and there was a tone of bitterness in his voice that suggested he had to worry about it before.

"I said I would help you, and I am. Why does truthfulness surprise you so much?" she asked.

"Because. There's too many deceptive people in my life. It's refreshing to see honesty," he said slowly. Mulan studied him, now convinced that he had been deceived by someone very close to him.

"Emma? Or your father?" she guessed.

"My father," he said, and straightened his posture. He was shutting the conversation down. He looked out the window. "You should go get that tea. And then we should get to sleep. We're leaving early in the morning."

"Very well," Mulan nodded.

Neal cast her a suspicious glance before leaving.


End file.
